Three men arraigned in market assault

Vicious attack left an Iranian vegetable seller permanently disabled.

DUBAI // Three Iranian men assaulted a compatriot working as a trader at a vegetable market, causing him permanent disabilities, the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance heard yesterday.

The trader SN, 38, told prosecutors he was at work on May 21 when he was approached by the three men, H A, 23, N A, 22, and a third Iranian who remains at large. The man who is at large stood behind a pole and took S N by surprise, hitting him on the head with a brick.

NA then threw a brick at his chest, S N claimed, causing him to fall to the ground before H A hit him on the back with a wooden stick embedded with nails as the other assailants kicked him. The three men then fled.

A witness testified that he saw S N lying on the ground bleeding profusely from his head. He told prosecutors that he did not see the men who attacked S N but saw an ambulance rush the victim to hospital.

S N sustained skull fractures and paralysis to the upper left side of his body and he suffered 65 per cent permanent disability, prosecutors said.

HA and NA denied charges of causing grievous bodily harm to SN. The case was adjourned to November 3.